Three more student suicides in Maharashtra, toll 9 now

Mumbai: Three more students in Maharashtra have ended their lives, one each in Pune, Nashik and Mumbai, taking the toll of student suicides to nine in six days, police said on Friday.

Twenty one-year-old Prajakta K. Kshatriya was early Friday found hanging in her home in Sinnar, Nashik district, police official Ashok S. Jadhav said.

Preliminary investigations suggest she took the step after performing badly in her third year graduation examinations.

Worried by the spate of students ending their lives, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan Thursday night announced a committee headed by the state education minister to look into the matter and suggest remedial measures.

On Thursday, 18-year-old student Vrushali Kale was found hanging from the ceiling of her hostel room in DP Institute of Nursing in Haveli, on the outskirts of Pune.

An official of Haveli police station said that the parents of the girl have complained about harassment by a college teacher, identified as Lahankar.

The victim had extended her leave during the Christmas-New Year holidays without informing the college authorities. After she returned, Lahankar allegedly refused her entry to her hostel room and even kept her hungry for a day.

The official told a news agency that Lahankar would be arrested soon and charged with abetment to suicide.

In Mumbai, a Class 12 junior college student, Vineet More, hanged himself Thursday. He was rushed to Rajawadi Hospital by his family, but the 17-year-old boy died early Friday, police said.

The three student suicides come close on the heels of six student suicides in the past six days.